Fabio Aru falters, Chris Froome soars in thin air of the Alps

Published 3:24 pm, Wednesday, July 19, 2017

BRIANCON, France — One series of giant Tour de France mountains out of the way. One more to come. And one less rival for race leader Chris Froome to watch quite so closely.

By sticking like flypaper to the enterprising Romain Bardet, despite the French rider’s efforts to get away from him on the race’s highest peak, Froome took a big step Wednesday toward a fourth Tour victory this weekend in Paris.

Italian Fabio Aru, on the other hand, fell behind on the barren slopes of scree and patchy grass in the thinning air of the mighty Col du Galibier, one of the Tour’s most fearsome Alpine climbs.

Like a yo-yo, the Italian repeatedly worked his way back to Froome’s group of top contenders. But a last burst of speed from Bardet toward the top of the mountain pass, which rises 8,668 feet in altitude, proved decisive. Froome stayed with the French rider, who stood next to him on the Paris podium last year, in second place. Aru did not.

On the long and hairy high-speed (as much as 45 mph) descent from there to the finish, they pedaled furiously to prevent Aru from catching them, whisking through bends with no safety barriers and no margin for error.

Rigoberto Uran, the Colombian who is making a habit at this Tour of being in the right place at the right time, zoomed down in that group, too.

Photo: Chris Graythen, Getty Images

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Fans in La Mure, a village of about 5,000 in southeastern France, watch part of Stage 17 of the Tour de France.

Fans in La Mure, a village of about 5,000 in southeastern France, watch part of Stage 17 of the Tour de France.

Photo: Chris Graythen, Getty Images

Fabio Aru falters, Chris Froome soars in thin air of the Alps

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Having started Stage 17 in second place overall, just 18 seconds behind Froome, the Astana team’s Aru slipped back to fourth — 53 seconds behind the race leader, who seems to be getting stronger.

Uran leapfrogged from fourth to second overall. Bardet is still third. That podium could stick all the way to Paris on Sunday, as they both trail Froome by 27 seconds.

“At this stage of the race, everyone’s on their hands and knees, let’s see what happens,” Froome said. “It’s still all to race for.”

The Team Sky leader was greeted at the finish by French President Emmanuel Macron, who followed the stage in a car with the race director.

Beating everyone to the top of the Galibier — a feat that earned him a bonus of $5,750 — was Tour rookie Primoz Roglic. Showing nerves of steel on the 17-mile descent to the finish at the Serre-Chevalier ski station, the former ski jumper became the first Slovenian to win a stage in the 114-year history of the Tour.

The Tour lost Marcel Kittel, winner of five stages, after he crashed. The German had been leading the green jersey competition, awarded for points collected in sprints during and at the end of stages.